Oct. 3, 2013

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This newly released rendering shows Colorado State University's proposed on-campus football stadium. / Courtesy of Colorado State University

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CSU has trimmed nearly $20 million from the cost of its proposed on-campus football stadium, largely by redesigning one side, and on Thursday released new renderings showcasing the 40,000-seat venue.

Briefly breaking a self-imposed silence while university officials raise money for the now-$226.5 million privately funded stadium project, Colorado State University President Tony Frank said he still believes the project remains in CSU’s best long-term interests. Frank said he expects CSU will have raised about $37 million for the project by year’s end.

Critics continue to blast the project as a “fatally flawed” boondoggle that will reduce the university’s emphasis on academics and research.

“Fundraising is ongoing, and we have made great progress in many areas, particularly building relationships with new potential donors interested in this type of activity,” Frank said in a presentation Thursday. “In short, if we can arrive at a successful series of funding outcomes that do not impact the general fund of the university and the tuition we charge our students, I believe it remains in the best long-term interest of the university to have a new stadium facility and to have it located on our main campus.”

In a presentation to members of the university’s governing board on Thursday, Frank said the stadium could also contain about 55,000 square feet of classrooms, to address a need for more academic space. That academic space would be paid for separately from the stadium project.

The stadium site is about a block north of Prospect Road in Fort Collins, on the southern edge of the university’s existing campus, at the intersection of Lake and South Whitcomb streets. CSU proposes to build a parking garage, paid for separately, to serve the stadium and other campus growth.

Frank said he expects to decide in the next two months whether the university should proceed with formal design and development work for the project, a step that would kick off a new round of neighborhood meetings. Seven of the state’s largest construction companies have expressed interest in building the project to replace the aging Hughes Stadium.

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Frank has vowed not to begin building the stadium until half of its cost has been raised. Frank and Athletic Director Jack Graham argue that a new on-campus stadium with energized alumni while also raising the university’s national profile and attracting more out-of-state students and better-quality student-athletes.

Built in 1968, the 32,500-seat Hughes Stadium is more than three miles from the heart of CSU’s campus. University officials say the aging stadium needs significant repairs and improvements that may not be worth making. The new stadium, they say, will generate more money to support the university’s athletic programs.

“Everything we do, we want to be as fiscally responsible as possible. We want it to be top notch, but we want to be fiscally responsible,” said CSU Vice President for Advancement Brett Anderson, who is helping Graham lead fundraising for the stadium. Anderson said adding a third, narrower tier of seating on one side lowered the stadium’s overall cost because three smaller tiers are cheaper than two large ones.

Anderson said his team has met privately with about 300 potential donors and secured several multimillion dollar commitments. “We’ve had only one person flat-out say, ‘No, that’s not something I want to be part of,’” Anderson said. “Everyone else has said, ‘Yes, tell me more.’”

Critics say the university faces losing its nationally recognized academic and research focus by engaging in a facilities arms race with its peers. The main group opposing the project calls itself “Save Our Stadium, Hughes” and has been repeatedly rebuffed in its efforts to meet with the CSU Board of Governors to discuss its concerns. Public comment was not permitted at Thursday’s presentation by Frank.

“They aren’t listening. And they need to be listening,” said SOSH founder Bob Vangermeersch. SOSH says its analysis of stadium finances puts the project on the red side of the ledger under all but the most optimistic of projections.

“They’re making an assumption that their business plan is sound, and it’s not,” Vangermeersch said.

Graham on Thursday said he remains convinced the project is financially viable, despite continued low game attendance and the football team’s 2-3 start this year and 4-8 record last year. Graham said most people understand that digging the football team out of its “deep cultural hole” of losing takes more than a year or two.

“The people we’re talking to ... are very well informed and sophisticated people who understand the process that’s required to turn around a football program and a business, and that’s what we’re doing,” Graham said. “Independent of wins and losses, they understand that if we in fact continue to do the right thing and stay absolutely committed to our values and sound biz principles, things will turn around.”

He added: “My confidence level in this project grows every day that I work on it.”